Unit History: 8 Field Force

The 5th Infantry Brigade was a regular British Army formation from the First World War to disbandment in 1999.
During both World War I and the Second World War the 5th Brigade was part of the 2nd Infantry Division. It served in France in 1940, was evacuated to Britain from Dunkirk and remained in Britain until 10 April 1942 when it was shipped out to India. The 5th Brigade served with the 2nd Infantry Division in the Burma Campaign under General Sim’s Fourteenth Army
Following the war it was part of the British Army of the Rhine until 1964, when the Brigade Group was released to bolster the strategic reserve. It arrived in Borneo in October 1965 to take control of Mid West Sector, but by 1968 it was back in the United Kingdom as part of the 3rd Infantry Division. It did a tour in Northern Ireland during the early part of the Troubles. In the early 1980s the Field Force concept was dropped in favour of traditional Brigades, 5th Infantry Brigade was reformed at Aldershot in 1981 by the redesignation of 8th Field Force. The Brigade consisted of the former elements of the Parachute Contingency Force (PCF) from 6 Field Force (which became the 1st Infantry Brigade), at the time 2 PARA, together with a second Parachute Battalion from 8 Field Force (3 PARA).